Centrifugal water-wheel



ifi/g Wwf NIPEERB. PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON. D. C4

VUNITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

OSCAR WILLIS, oF DIZARDVI'LLENCRTH CAROLINA.

CENTRIFUGAL WATI-:R-wr-iEl-n..`

Specification forming part of LettersPatent No. 12,569, dated March 20,1855.

'To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OSCAR WILLIS, of Dizardville, in the county ofMcDowell and State of North Carolina,have invented certain new andVuseful Improvements in Water-Wheels;

and I do hereby'declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription thereof, ref erence being had to the accompanying drawings,and to letters of reference marked thereon, in which- Figure lrepresents a vertical transverse section through the center of theframe,flume, and Wheel. Fig. 2 represents a broken view of the top andbottom of the block through which the Water islet on the wheel. Fig. 3represents a similar view of the wheel immediately underneath theblock.Fig. t represents the form of block used in applying the Y bucket,diagonal to the central vertical line of motion, to receive the reactivepower of the water acquired by its spreading on the bucket, and thusgive additional speed to the wheel; second, in the peculiar set of thebuckets at the top of the wheel, ranging on a line in front of thecenter of `the wheel tangential to a circle of suitable diameterdescribed around said center, so as to receive the water at such anangle as will overcome the centrifugal direction it has obtained inpassing the inclined ways in the block or bottom of the forebay, andthus prevent it from running or rushing to the outer edge or rim of thewheel; third, in the rimming or shrouding of the wheel on top, so as toprevent the escape and loss of Water in its application to the buckets,and to prevent injury beingdone to themby any hard substance hangingbetween them and the inclined Ways in the block or bottom of theforebay; fourth, in so proportioning theorifice of discharge from theblock to that at the tail of the bucket as that a c olumn of wateraboutone-third less in size than that of the orioe of discharge Vat the tailof the bucket is all that can be admitted at a time to thewheel-buckets; and,fth,in setting the buckets in the nut and rim of theWheel on a vcurved line, and bending the center part t of the top edgeof the bucket forward in the direction of its motion so that the top ofthe l bucket is curved on its edge and the upper part of the centralvertical section of the bucket where the water first strikes is astraight inclined plane at a slightly obtuse angle with the direction ofthe water.

In the construction of the wheel the nut or center part A, as Well asthe other parts of the wheel, may be of wood or iron or both i urementof the buckets, in order to get the best reactive effect from thesmallest quantity of Water, which will be hereinafter described. Saidbuckets are placed between the nut and rim and the Whole firmly andsubstantially connected together to form the Wheel. The rim B is beveledunder on its inner side, as seen at a, Fig. 1. The nut is also beveledunder, as seen at b, Fig. 1, so as to widen the space or Water-way atthe bottom of the wheel to about double the width of the oriice at thetop of the Wheel. D represents the vertical shaft of the wheel, which issupported in suitable bearings in any well-known manner. A

The buckets form a curved inclined plane in the direction of theirlength, and the heads or upper ends are curved in the direction of theirwidth, or are bent forward at the center in the direction of theirmotion, so as to receive the water upon a straight inclined plane whenit first strikes' the bucket, andto prevent it from rushing to the sidesby being curved in its width while exerting its percussive force uponit. The head of the bucket does not range toward the center of thewheel, but is on a line tangentially to a circle of v Suitable diameterdescribed around said center. i

kThe dotted line Fig. 3, represents the general direction of the head ofthe bucket,

said line passing to that side'of the center in the direction of themotion of the wheel, so as to receive the water at such an angle laswill counteract the centrifugal direction it has acquired in passing theinclined ways in the block or bottom of the forebay, and bring it tobear equally on the beveled sides of the nut and rim of the wheel. Theyare so curved longitudinally as that the bottom of the wheel, which ishorizontal, forms a tangent with the tail or lower part of the bucket,so thatin the passage of the water downward, after it has exhausted itspower of percussion on the upper part of the bucket, it is. by itschangevof direction as it gradually approximates to an almost horizontalone, caused to spread and give out a reactive effect on the beveled orinclined sides of the bucket, formed by the beveling of the nut andrim,as well asa similar effect on the curved incline plane of thewheel-buckets by gravitation, which continues till the water leaves thewheel, bythe gradual change of direction of the current.

The vertical longitudinal section of the bucket is curved,and to whichthe bottom of the wheel is tangential, as seen in Fig. 4. Its tail endis radial to the center of the wheel, as represented by the dotted liney, Fig. 3. The buckets are set so close together that the water may onlystrike on that portion of them at the top edge, which is a straightinclined plane at nearly a right angle with the inclines in the blockabove them. The upper part of the bucket (as well as the remainder ofit) is set into the nut and rim on a curved line and afterward hammeredback at the top edge in the direction of the wheels motion, which makesthe upper part of them straight on the incline down the center and atthe same time curves the top edge, leaving it concave to the water. Thishas the eect of holding the water when it first strikes the bucket andpreventing it from pressing laterally against the nut and rim at theupper part of the bucket, where, from the position of the sides, itcould not exert any reactive iniuence in the direction of the wheelsmotion, and as it passes from this concave part onto thetransversely-flat part increases its tendency to spread against thediagonal sides of the lower part of the bucket in addition to suchspreading or lateral flow, due to the change of direction of the currenton the curvedv lower part of the bucket. If the buckets were placed wideapart, the water would strike low down upon the curve, and not only loseits second eect by leaving the wheel too rapidly, but would strike on apart of the curve whose angle of deflection from the direction of thewater is not suitable to develop the percussive power of the waterwholly in the direction of the wheels motion. The top part of the bucketshould be at a slightly obtuse angle from the plane of direction of thewater in passing through the inclined ways in the block, so as toreceive the water at an angle that will produce the greatest percussiveeifect and at the same time to incline it downwardly into the curvedpart of the bucket, and being placed thus close together reserves abouttwo-thirds .at the lower part of the bucket to be operated on by thereaction of the water, as before described. The perpendicular distanceof one bucket over the next is about twothirds greater at the top thanat the bottom, and their width is about double at the bottom that at thetop. The head of the bucket c, Fig. l, is not flush with the top of thewheel, but is from one to two inches below it,in proportion to the sizeof the wheel. That portion of the nut and rim above the head of thebucket, and which I term shrouding, rises all around the water-spacebetween the nut and rim and forms a beveled projection over the bucket,that portion on the rim projecting over them about half an inch, whilethat on the nut only projects over them about a quarter of an inch. Thisdilerence of projection of the shrouding over the buckets is alsointended to lessen the lateral pressure of the water on the rim oroutside support of the buckets, due to its centrifugal inclination, byintroducing it on the wheel on a smaller circle than that of thebuckets, and thus dividing its pressure equally on both nut and rim,while the shrouding itself protects the upper edge of the bucket frominjury arising from any hard substance hanging between thenr and theinclined ways in the block Aabove and at the same time prevents loss ofWater between the block or forebay and the Wheel. I also use a similarshrouding c below or on the under side of the rim and nut to support andprotect the tail of the bucket. A squareblockE sets over the wheel andmay be hung or suspended by rods f, so as to be removable when itbecomes necessary to repair the wheel below it. This block may besubstantially made of timber or other suitable material and providedwith a number of openings F, directly over the buckets of the wheel. Theopenings in the block E should contract about one-half from top tobottom-that is to say, when two inches wide at top they should be oneinch at bottom, and are separated by sheet-metal divisions set at anangle of about forty-tive degrees in the direction the wheel is intendedto run. The passages thus formed in the block are for directing thewater from the forebay onto the wheels buckets. On the top of this blockis a tub-formed water-guard G, for the purpose of keeping the water fromthe shaft of the wheel and throwing it toward the openings in the block.When the head of water is low, but abundant, the set of the buckets maybe varied to a less curved form and the water discharged more directlydown, even to an angle of thirty degrees, thus making the additionalquantity of water supply the place of weight, in which case the form ofblock, &;c., just described for introducing the water onto the bucketswould be suitable; but ifv the head of water is much elevated, the watershould be conducted to the wheel l 12,569 y Y s through close pipes,terminating on opposite sides of the axis of the wheel in trunks H, Fig.4, the under side of which are provided with openings having inclined'division similar to those in the block already described for directingthe water onto the wheel. Thus the y Water is confined in columns, theweight of which is made available, instead of the quantity, in whichcase the buckets should range at an angle of about forty-five degrees.

In applying these Wheels to saw-mills or other machinery requiring theshaft to lie horizontally, two Wheels should be placed on the sameshaft,with their under sides or tails of the buckets toward each other,and the water applied through the blocks on the face of each wheel atthe lower side; or'they may be placed face to face on the same shaft anda block for introducing the water to each wheel supported between them.

I wish to be understood that I do not claim a curved bucket; nor do Iclaim beveling the nut and rim individually; nor do I claim them whencombined in such a form as to facilitate the escape of the Water only,as this has been done by Fontaine .Ionval, and others previously; but,

Having thus described my invention, what I claim therein as new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

the water is let onto the wheel in a smaller circle than that of thebuckets-that is to say, the diameter of the annular space at the top ofthe shrouding being less than that at the tail of the bucket, each fromcenter to center-fas and for the purposes substantially hereindescribed.

4. Forming the annular Water-space on the upper side of the Wheel,substantially as and for the purposes specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name this 29th day ofJuly, 1854.

OSCAR WILLIS.

Witnesses;

BENJAMIN DAVIDSON, WM. M. SMITH.

